//------------------------------// // The Club // Story: Wily's Wittle Wub // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// While Skull Man did give Mega Man a very thorough thrashing, venting his spleen on the Blue Bomber, eventually he grew weary of the battle and offered Mega Man a chance to surrender, as Air Man had predicted. When Mega Man had eagerly surrendered, Skull Man had flung him all the way back to Light Labs while shouting, "Geeeeeet dunked on!" Light had given Mikhail and Albert to understand that it would take several months to fully repair him. A little over a month later, Forte stepped out of Vinyl's lab and stretched. He was rather amazed at how rapidly Vinyl was advancing with her designs...and was privately considering asking her to upgrade him for real robot battle at some point. With all the martial arts programming in him, combat called to him. Still, his primary purpose was to be a good brother to Vinyl, and at this point in time rushing off to battle didn't meet that purpose. Being a good lab assistant, however, did. He was rather surprised to see Crash Man setting up a snooker table, a round table, and several chairs in one of the large, unused rooms of the Fortress. "What are you doing?" he asked curiously. Crash Man looked up. "Sorry, club members only." Forte blinked. "Club?" Glancing over, he saw the sign. First Meeting of the Mega Mashers Club Forte couldn't help but chuckle. "You're actually making the club?" "Yup," Crash Man replied. "Entry into the club is simple. You're a Robot Master aligned against Mega Man, and you've either beaten him soundly or never lost to him. The second is so Wood Man can be a member, since he never actually fought Mega Man. And it wouldn't be fair to exclude him." He shrugged. "Besides, he's bringing his hookah. "I'm a Robot Master," Forte pointed out. "By those rules, I should be a member, too." Crash Man looked him up and down. "You aren't a combat model," he indicated. "Neither was Rock," Forte countered. Crash Man thought about that for a time, then nodded. "Alright. Get the snacks." It didn't take long for the club room to finish being set up. In addition to snooker and the poker table, Air Man had brought in a pinball machine, Shadow Man (who postulated that, since both he and Mega Man were forced to withdraw after their original fight - and that Vinyl actually wanted Mega Man to retrieve all the energy element capsules - his match had ended in a draw, not a defeat) brought a DDR machine, and Wood Man - in addition to his hookah - brought along several game consoles to be hooked up...along with, of all the irony, console adaptions of the events of Mega Man's crusade against Wily. Forte had been rather surprised to discover that he'd been programmed to be an excellent cook. When asked, Wily had explained that it was because, as scientists, he and Vinyl would tend towards ignoring their own dietary needs for the sake of their research and experimentation. As a good big brother, Forte was to take care of Vinyl when she couldn't be bothered to take care of herself. Wily hadn't even had to use the internet to program that part, as he himself was a classically trained chef before he got into robotics. As everything was being set up, the group was startled as Skull Man - still in his hoodie - stepped out from behind the pinball machine. "I brought drinks," he spoke up, showing it was still the secondary personality in control, though apparently much more relaxed now. The group decided that they'd play poker first today. Gathering around the table and taking their seats, they took their fill of snacks and drinks as Shadow Man took on the role of dealer. While no one was surprised that Wood Man's drink of choice was a two liter of soda to wash down his massive bowl of chips, a few eyebrows were raised at Skull Man's bottle of ketchup with straw. The game went on for several hands, with no one gaining a real obvious lead. An unexpected drawback was discovered to playing card games with a group of robots: everyone had a computer for a brain, and could readily calculate everything about the cards, making bluffing impossible. "Maybe we should try a different game?" Forte asked. "One that can't be won by card counting?" "Too many of us for Bridge or Hearts," Skull Man replied with a gentle laugh. "And all of us have robotic reflexes too good for any computer games, or any pool-type games," Air Man added. "We could all take a big hit," Wood Man offered, holding out his hookah. "That ought to lower our reflexes and calculations a bit." "Except then you have an advantage, since you're used to it," Crash Man corrected. "It seems that most of the games we could play are simply too...primitive for our capabilities." The group fell silent, lost in thought. "Anyone up to designing a new game that will challenge us?" Forte suggested. "Too much work," Crash Man replied. "I guess we need to find new group activities." "Maybe we could play with the cute unicorn?" Skull Man offered. "She's busy in her lab," Forte countered. "But getting together to do things with Vinyl could be fun. We've got three holidays coming up to spend time with her for." "Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas," Air Man confirmed. "We could make plans for that." "As the only one with a large belly, I call playing Santa Claus!" Wood Man called out. "Does that make us your ho's?" Skull Man joked before chuckling, resulting in him dodging a shower of pretzels, popcorn, and nachos. "Actually, I understand that Protoman and Pops are already planning something special for Christmas," Forte pointed out. "But we could always plan Halloween costumes." "And when we're done, we could watch some movies," Wood Man offered. "Just veg out on the couch." "Sounds fun," Air Man replied, as the group got to work on their costume ideas.